Heretofore, it has been well known in building construction to attach sheets of insulation or insulation board to an erected building, such as gypsum, concrete, or other masonry. The sheets of insulation are applied uniformly to the entire surface of the building for insulation purposes. An aesthetic, waterproof, and impact resistant finishing material or system is generally applied over the insulation. One example of such an application is the "THOROWALL" systems in which the insulation is an Expanded Poly-Styrofoam, commonly referred to as "EPS." "THOROWALL" is a trademark owned by Thoro System Products. Besides EPS, there are numerous types of sheet insulation material including different types of styrofoam available for use in building construction. The EPS sheets are generally light in weight, approximately one pound per cubic foot, and their dimensions vary, although a standard size is two feet wide by four feet long with a thickness of one, two, or more inches.
While mechanical fasteners have been used to attach the sheets of insulation to the substrate, a common method has been to apply adhesive or glue to the sheets of insulation to adhesively secure the insulation to an erected building substrate. Several types of adhesives are commercially available, some being more suitable to different substrates, different types of insulation, and differing climates. Also some adhesives may be mixed with cement.
Heretofore, adhesives have been manually applied to sheets of insulation using an assortment of tools such as trowels or caulking guns. The manual application of adhesive to multiple sheets of insulation is labor intensive and extremely time consuming. Moreover, manual application of the adhesive to the sheets of insulation tends to cause nonuniform coverage of the adhesive on the entire sheet. This tends to foster additional increases in the labor and time necessary for the proper securement of the insulation to the substrate. These problems are further magnified in colder climates where the construction season is considerably shorter than in warmer climates.